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I'm looking for feedback on the different Shun lines to start a collection for my wife. She's in need of a new Santoku knife and I feel like Shun is a nice start for a Japanese collection. It will be one of her Christmas gifts and we try not to spend a ton of money on each other so I was wanting to keep the price of the knife in the $200 range. I've been looking at the premier line which seems to be great. Does anyone have any experience with the premier line from Shun or any other recomendations?

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I have both the 8" and the 6" premier chefs knives along with a premier line steel. They are excellent knives, both beautful, and capable tools. The traditional hammerwork on the sides of the blades really make them standout. Fine Japanese knives like these are made for slicing, and as you can imagine they do that extremely well. With just a little practice you can slice a ripe tomato so thin you can read print through it, if you lay the slice on a piece of newspaper. I love to make margarita pizza and the ability to slice uniform sliver thin tomato slices really stepped up my game. One thing you will learn immediately, is that the blades are extremely thin. As such, you will need to develop a technique that keeps them slicing up and back with out twisting, choping and moving the knife sidewiays while the blade is anchored to your board. This was one of my favorite techniques when I used american / european style knives. I would set the knife blade in a pile of herbs, or anything else I wanted to chop fine, anchor the tip of the blade to my board with my left hand, and chop up and down while rotating the knife to the right and left. I tried this with my Shuns and immediately felt tension in the blade as it is really too thin and fine for this technique. Now my Global knives, which are also Japanese blades, handle this type of work just fine. But not my high end Shuns, and I relegate my Shuns to slicing only . One thing that Shun repeatedly stresses is do not leave your knives blades wet for any lenth of time, as they say it will cause the blades to possibly chip. I make it a practice to wipe my blades dry between each task. Shun classics are fine knives as well. Also I have a few Shun Soras which are Shuns economy line. With the Soras, think a combination of Japanese knives with a Victorinox type quality. Soras are fine knives, I have a 6"chefs and a utility slicer / paring knife which my wife loves to use. Very light and manageable while incredibly sharp and precise. Happy knife shopping.

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I have a Shun Premier 7" Santoku knife. I would be concerned how the handle would feel for her. I have relatively large hands for a woman - can palm a women's basketball - and I find it feels pretty chunky to me.

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Thanks for all of the information. I'm concerned about the handle on the premier line being a little too big after KismetKado commented, my better half certainly can't palm a women's basketball. Does anyone have any ideas as to a Shun Santoku that has a smaller, more female friendly handle? She's been using a Santoku knife from J.A. Henckels for years, which in my opinion has a pretty large handle as well, so it may not be that big of an issue for her. Regardless I would like to find her the best, most comfortable knife I can in the $200 range though and then build from there and unfortunately there isn't anywhere here locally (that I know of) that offers any of these knives so that she could handle them prior to me making the purchase.

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My wife is a shade less than 5'2', quite petite, and has very small hands with not alot of distance between the heal of her hand and the top of her palm. Her favorite knives to use are our Global paring knife, and 5" utility knife (think a 5" chefs knife), and our Shun Sora line 6" chefs and utility / slicing knife. My wife pretty much avoids all our full size larger handled kitchen knives and uses just those she feels comfortable with. These four knives are her go to for everything she preps in the kitchen. She feels comfortable with smaller handles as her grip is small and she also likes light weight knives. I bought her a 6" Shun Premier but she really doesn't use it much. However, I really like the 6" for small veggie prep.

here is a comparison pic of our Shun 8" premier and the two chefs knives my wife actually uses;

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My wife and I have a collection of the Shun Classics including a 7 inch Santoku and a 10 inch Chef knife. I use the Santoku a lot but prefer my Wustohf Chef knife because the Shun does not have a bolster. The Shuns are a pleasure to use and hold their edges. The look of the new lines of Shun look awesome.

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I have the Shun Premier 9.5” slicing knife. I couldn’t believe how thin the blade is, and how thinly it can slice. More importantly it cuts incredibly cleanly on meats and there’s no ridges along the side where you cut. It’s great for any meats, cooked or raw (sashimi like a pro). Be very careful when drying it with a paper towel though, I cut my finger pretty good (though it healed quickly)!

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I got the miyabi rose handle chef knife for Christmas (Sur La Table), Really like it. It is stainless steel core so less maintanace (they say) than regulsr steel. Zwilling bought the japanese knife maker a while back